Osama is not the Arab everyman

So Egyptian media moguls the Adib brothers are talking to Robert de Niro on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, where they are presenting the Yacoubian Building, about making a movie about Osama Bin Laden:

The pipeline movie about Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaeda network and the world's most wanted man, has also caught the eye of Robert de Niro, one of the world's most respected actor/directors and co-founder of the Tribeca festival.

De Niro wants to see the script when it is completed next month, Adel Adeeb, Emad's brother and head of group's GN4 Film and Music arm, said.

But though De Niro is interested in the project, which will start shooting next year, he is not planning on playing one of the characters, he emphasised.

The movie will revolve around an imaginary meeting between an American journalist and bin Laden in which both men explore their completely opposing views of world politics.

"Our aim is not defend bin Laden" but to help create a dialogue between the Western and Middle Eastern worlds, leading to a better understanding between them, underlined both brothers.

Great -- a movie about civilizational dialogue and the Westerner is a journalist while Osama stands in for the Arabs. Very representative.

Comments

[Elijah Zarwan]

Oh God.

I briefly got excited by the prospect of De Niro playing Bin Laden, tough. Sort of a return to his Taxi Driver/Raging Bull days.